


The Seventh Truth

by ro_mm_ck



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Community: fanfic100, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-07
Updated: 2007-08-07
Packaged: 2017-10-11 19:06:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/115900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ro_mm_ck/pseuds/ro_mm_ck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katie figures some things about Neville before even Neville knows them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seventh Truth

**Author's Note:**

> "title - The Seventh Truth" for ana_grrl's [Random Title Generator Challenge](http://ana-grrl.livejournal.com/199860.html) \- Also fanfic100 prompt school (2 for 1) Note: Thanks to ifuwereafrog and lieran for the quick betas.

Neville never belonged anywhere. His family didn't think he deserved the name Longbottom. His gran thought he wasn't worthy to be Frank and Alice's son. His housemates didn't understand why he was in Gryffindor, and Neville had agreed with them.

"You look different," Katie said when he'd gotten off the Hogwarts Express for his sixth year.

"I'm just the same," Neville replied, not daring to believe her. He looked down at his new robes and shrugged.

"Now that's not on," Katie said, tilting her head at him and squinting in a manner that led him to believe he was being scrutinized. Sighing, she looked as if she came to a sort of conclusion. "Well, you're taller."

"Right, I'm taller," he said, never having spoken more than a few words to the seventh year girl. She was on the Quidditch team with Harry and she was also a Gryffindor, but it wasn't like they had anything in common. He was unused to people noticing anything about him but all the house points he lost over the course of a year.

"That's true, but that's not it," Katie said exasperatedly putting her hands on her hips in a way that reminded him a bit of Hermione.

Neville's face grew red as Katie looked at him longer and harder. He smiled and backed away from her before saying, "Well, the carriages are leaving, so..."

"I'll think of it," Katie promised before joining her friends in the carriage they'd headed toward while she'd been talking to Neville. She smiled at him as she stepped up and sat next to a dark haired girl whose name he was sure he'd remember in a minute. She stared at him for another moment before turning toward another one of the seventh year girls in her carriage and laughing.

"Odd," Neville said to himself.

"What's odd?" Luna asked from behind him. He'd gotten used to her soft walk and demeanor but he couldn't help but jump a bit. She looked at him with a smile that meant she hadn't intended to alarm him but was happy to see him again.

"Katie Bell says I'm different," Neville said, half looking at Luna's face while still keeping an eye on the departing carriage. He wasn't sure why he felt so thrown by it, but he didn't feel any differently. Maybe he should feel different. Maybe what had happened at the Ministry should have changed him.

"You are," she said, stepping up into the carriage. "You've grown quite tall."

"We established that. She seems to think it's something else," he said distractedly. Holding Trevor on his lap, he sat down next to Luna and waited for the rest of the carriage to load. Two Hufflepuff fourth years sat on the other bench and they were on their way.

Luna leaned over to him and said, "You're not just taller. I can see it, too." Sitting up and smiling at the thestral pulling them toward Hogwarts, Luna made it clear she wasn't going explain any further. Her hair was pulled back to reveal earrings made of pieces of water worn blue glass. She still wore the necklace with a cork charm and Neville had to smile with her. She projected a feeling of calm wherever she went and he was letting some of it seep into his muscles.

He hadn't known he was tense until his body started to relax. Katie's observation had thrown him and it was such a silly thing. Of course he was different. Months had passed since she'd seen him and he'd helped Harry fight You Know Who and a dozen Death Eaters in the meantime. He had to have changed, but how?

* * *

"Neville did you take lessons this summer?" Hermione asked when they returned to the common room after Charms.

"I did a bit of reading on my own," he said, sitting in one of the large overstuffed chairs by the fire.

"You were brilliant today, Neville," she said, smiling.

"You don't have to sound so surprised, Hermione," he said with a scowl.

"I'm not," she said, trying to cover the fact that she was, indeed, surprised.

"It's all right, Hermione. I'm surprised, too," he said, looking into the fire.

Hermione regarded him for a moment before sitting in the neighboring chair. "You've just got more confidence is all," she explained. "It means a lot, especially with spell work."

"If you say so," he said.

"It's the truth, Neville. I think that fight with the Death Eaters knocked the awkward right out of you," she said with a smile, ducking her head into a book.

* * *

It had been three days since the school filled with students once again and Neville had just about had it with people telling him he'd changed. In that time, Neville had learned he was taller, thinner, better at Charms, surer, and that he didn't snore anymore, though he wasn't sure he had in the first place. Harry had even said he thought Neville was different. He'd rolled his eyes and brushed him off for a moment before sitting down next to Ron in the common room.

"He's right, mate," Ron agreed. "Something's changed."

"Good Lord," Neville said in a huff. "I'm the same person. Did Katie Bell give everyone handouts so you all could decide that I wasn't me anymore?"

Neville walked up to his room from the Common Room without a backward glance. He didn't see Ron mouth "Katie Bell?" with a raised brow at Harry as he stalked away. Tired of hearing over and over again why he was different, he decided to do something that would make him feel the same. He grabbed his cloak hanging on his bed and walked back downstairs. Passing by his friends, he walked out of Gryffindor Tower and moved toward a place that had always provided him sanctuary.

Professor Sprout looked up when the greenhouse door opened and smiled at him as he carefully closed it. She continued working on the plant she'd been pruning, a particularly nasty cross breed of two strangling plants. The combination could kill with deadly accuracy but when the flowers bloomed, their pollen had healing properties only eclipsed by phoenix tears.

"Need any help, professor?" he asked hopefully. She nodded and moved to one side of the large plot of dirt. Neville dropped his bag by the door and tried to pull on his Herbology gloves but they wouldn't fit. His brow furrowed for a moment before taking them off. Frowning, he looked up at the plump, dirt-covered woman beside him. "Do you have any extra gloves, professor? Mine don't seem to fit, anymore."

"There's a pair on the bench there," she said, nodding her head at the long bench covered in tools and pots. "Outgrown yours then?" she asked absently. "I say, Mr. Longbottom, you look quite different since last year," she said giving him a good stare before plunging the roots of the plant deep into the soil. When she looked up to see his response, he was already picking up his bag and heading out the door. "What? What did I say?" she wondered when he'd gone.

* * *

Neville sat down in front of the lake and laid his head on his pack. He needed to be alone for a few moments before he literally exploded at someone. He couldn't explain why all of these differences were making him angry, but they were. Little things like being taller or having outgrown his gloves weren't life-ending changes, they were normal things that humans went through as they matured. He couldn't figure that all of this had to do with the changes and nothing to do with the person who'd started the change parade. He _was_ taller, thinner, better at Charms, and surer of himself. Something about facing down the person who'd tortured your parents... and living had changed him in ways even he was willing to admit. He'd outgrown most of his clothes so it was only fair that his hands had grown, too, making his gloves a good half inch too short on each finger. He still wasn't going to fully admit that he'd snored before, but that was probably true as well.

Neville had been positive that he would remain the chubby, frightened, little Gryffindor forever and had never counted on becoming a true lion. He'd always doubted the Sorting Hat after it put him in a house where bravery was prized. His housemates were generally nice to him, but he felt they also doubted his place in their house.

Looking up at the grey sky above him, Neville sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment and thought of the night at the Ministry of Magic. He'd absolutely been afraid, but there was no choice but to help. Maybe that's all bravery was, a refusal to allow fear to change your course of action.

When he opened his eyes, a confused Katie Bell was standing above him smiling. He sat up and looked at her for a moment before squinting at her. Pulling her knees to her chest, she sat down comfortably next to him. "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings," she said kindly. "I hadn't meant to."

"What?" Neville said supremely confused.

"Ron said something about it at Quidditch practice. Said I should talk to you because you'd 'gone mental' or something like that," she said. She smiled softly at him while scratching her leg absentmindedly.

"You didn't hurt my feelings, Katie," he said regarding her warmly. She was quite pretty when it came down to it. She had an unobtrusive beauty to her. It wasn't a flashy beauty like the girls from Beauxbatons but more a quiet confidence. She didn't need to do anything to herself to be beautiful, she was lovely because she didn't try.

"Well, that's good," Katie said, smiling at him. "Do you need to talk or anything?"

"Not really," Neville said honestly. "I worked most of it out in my head."

"Ron said you'd yelled at him," she probed.

"I did," Neville said, blushing. "I'll have to apologize later."

"I don't think he's dwelling on it, Neville," she said with an easy grin.

"Still," he said, looking out at the water.

"I think it's the first time most of Gryffindor has ever heard you yell," she joked.

"True," he said. "I'd gotten pretty tired of people telling me I was so different."

"Why?"

"Dunno," he said, thinking for a moment. Neville thought that maybe the reason all of it had made him so upset is that he'd finally felt like a member of his house. He'd finally felt like he'd belonged and everyone was telling him that he didn't even belong to himself anymore. Deciding to keep that bit to himself he shrugged his shoulders. "Is there a reason why you're so concerned about me?"

"Am I not allowed to be concerned?" she asked with an unruffled tone. Inside, her nerves were fraying; she felt like she'd changed as well. There was something in her that made her want to peak past the quiet wallflower in front of her to find what he was really like. He was calm and quiet and yet she felt there was an untapped energy to him.

"I've said less than a hundred words to you the entire time I've known you," he explained without confrontation or anger. "It's odd."

Looking more collected than she actually felt, Katie's face broke into the scrutinizing look again, regarding him with a combination of kindness and curiosity. Seeming to come to the same conclusion she'd drawn on the carriages, her eyes fluttered closed before she looked at him again. Sighing, she sat up and folded her legs underneath her. "I think you're fascinating."

Neville blinked... and then blinked again. "Me?" he asked, incredulously. "I'm..." he stuttered. "I'm not..."

"You are," she said in a convincing tone. "It's true. I'm not sure when you first showed up on my radar, but you're on it now."

"Radar?" Neville asked confused at the Muggle term.

"It's a system used to..." she started to explain and then realized it wouldn't be worth it. "Needless to say, it means I've been watching you and not in a creepy way."

"A creepy way?" he asked, finally smiling along with her.

"You know, people who stalk blokes, wanting to collect bits of their hair for an alter with candles and pictures all over it," she said, gesturing to an invisible table with many levels in front of her.

Neville laughed at the image and Katie looked at him, relieved. This was going better than she thought it would. He wasn't mad at her. He didn't seem to be put off by her attention and he was laughing at her odd sense of humor.

"Well, I'm glad that you're not stalking me then," he said with a sideways smile. "Why are you watching me? I'm the least exciting person I know," he admitted dryly.

"None of that," Katie said with a dismissive wave. "No more self-defacing talk, it's very unattractive and I happen to find you very exciting."

Neville raised an uncharacteristic eyebrow at her and looked at her disbelieving. It seemed very unlikely that an actual, real, live girl was saying that he was exciting. There had been dreams he'd had where he was famous for doing something truly spectacular, but they had been only dreams. But here was Katie Bell, a person that hadn't been on his "radar" before the start of term, and she was saying he was fascinating with no sarcasm in her voice.

While waiting for him to speak, the air around Katie start to crackle. It was something that had happened ever since she was small. The energy generated by her nervousness and anxiety took an outward form in a static electricity surrounding her. It was one of the reasons she tried not to let people get to her. It was nothing like super heroes from Muggle comic books, it was an annoying tic she was still unable to control.

Neville's eyes went wide for a moment before leaning away from her. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"It's a bloody nervous tic," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

"Your hair is standing up," he said, pointing to her head, trying not to laugh.

"Here," she said, taking his hand and putting it on her neck. "Now your hair is standing up, too." The action was meant to make Neville laugh, to relieve some of the tension in the conversation. It didn't.

Neville left his hand where she'd put it, staring at her as the static ceased and her heartbeat rose. He could feel her pulse quicken underneath his fingers and his heartbeat elevated to match hers. His mind raced to think that he was the cause of this. When he rubbed his thumb over her skin, she sucked in a quick breath before looking him straight in the eyes. A thought ran through his mind, tripping over the chain of events leading up to this moment, and Neville knew he wanted to kiss her. It was an odd little thought, but one that was spurred on by the reaction she'd given him.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked, shyly, his thumb still rubbing light circles on her neck.

Katie nodded and licked her lips nervously. Neville leaned forward to press his lips to hers. The soft pressure of his lips was enough to make Katie want to touch more of him. He pulled away from her after only a short peck and Katie lifted a hand to touch his face. Her fingers ran along his jaw and wound around to tangle in his hair. She leaned forward to kiss him and didn't pull away. She was a year older and obviously had more experience than Neville in this arena. She was just as nervous, but experience did give her a bit of confidence in what she was doing.

"I'm going to kiss you again," Katie said.

"Um, okay," he said with a bewildered expression that was endearing and precious.

"Have you ever kissed a girl before?" she asked, her short nails grazing over his cheeks and jaw.

"I have now," he said, his cheeks red with embarrassment. He wished Katie would stop smiling at him like that. He would have loved to lie and say that, of course, he'd kissed someone. He was sixteen and should have kissed girls by now. He was in the middle of feeling like an unlikeable dud when he felt her lips touch his again. Her lips felt slightly wet from her tongue and the warmth she passed to him squashed any feelings of inadequacy.

"Open your mouth a little," she instructed as she brought her mouth back down to deepen the kiss. At the first feel of her tongue to his, Neville shuddered and moaned into her mouth. When she broke the kiss, her face was filled with a smile different from the others. Her eyes were somewhat sleepy and her mouth curved as she looked at him. "I like the way you taste when you moan," she said, a little breathless.

Neville's eyes went wide before leaning in to kiss her like she'd kissed him, wanting to see what her moans tasted like. His sexually charged teen-aged mind was trying not to read too far into the future because the present, kissing Katie, was quite lovely indeed. He pulled her closer as he kissed her, running his hands along her back and loving the feel of her strong, curvy body against his. Katie pushed him away, gasping for air, her lips plump and red.

"I think I could get used to kissing you. You're quite a quick study, Mr. Longbottom," she said, sounding a bit like a naughty teacher.

"I think I quite like kissing you," he said awkwardly.

"Like I said, you're fascinating," Katie said, touching his lips with her fingertips.

Neville kissed her fingertips before saying, "I guess it's true then."


End file.
